Financial pain = no gain

By Steve Guy :  20/12/2007 :  Comments (23) :

I read with no little amount of schaudenfreude (hope I?ve spelt it correctly !) of the financial straits our red neighbours are getting themselves into. The article is on the Daily Telegraph?s website if you want a proper read. It would appear that Laurel and Hardy (Gillette and Hicks), rather than being the ?White Knights? who would dig deep to fund a Premier League title, have actually been borrowing heavily against the club (as opposed to using their own cash) to fund both their takeover and the subsequent purchase of players. They are going to borrow a further £60M to start the ground redevelopment, but have no guarantee they can raise the rest of the cash.

In any case, the stadium, if it is built, will be to a reduced specification and the borrowings will (again) be against the club not the owners. All this is likely to leave Beneathus with little or no money to invest in more players and a first EPL title still a distant dream.

There are now a significant number of EPL clubs in a similar position to Liverpool; foreign owners milking the TV money whilst in reality investing little in the club they have bought; apart from a few expensive signings to keep the fans happy (and the tills ringing in the club shop).

Now I know Everton are not exactly the most profitable of organisations and we do have debts of our own to contend with. However, they are at manageable levels and clearly not on the breath taking scale of those at Man Utd (£600M +) or Liverpool (see above). Nor would we want them to be.

Given where we now find ourselves at the Club, I think that, in the long term, we could actually find ourselves in a much healthier position than many of our competitors both on and off the field by pursuing our current strategies. I?m not suggesting that the likes of Man Utd (or Liverpool unfortunately) are about to implode. However, the strategy of attracting foreign investment clearly comes at a cost which is potentially high risk for the club in question; as it assumes continuing success on the pitch to fund high levels of debt. A large fan base alone will never suffice. Leeds United is a classic example of this strategy and if it has happened once it can happen again.

We were in this position not too long ago when Agent Johnson had the reins. Relegation at that time would have taken us into oblivion. It has taken the best part of ten years to get the Club moving in the right direction again and Kenwright deserves a lot of the credit for this. We all have our views on his motives, but I err on the side of those who see him as a true Evertonian who, unlike us, was able to put his money in at a critical time for the Club and has since created a support network of Directors and others with whom he has been able to steady the ship and gradually start to move it forward. We have a manager who Kenwright has supported with funds and who is now starting to repay his Chairman with results and the fans with performances we relish. Success in terms of trophies is tangible now, where a little whole ago such talk would have been laughable.

So, for me, I do not look forward to the day when some American / Russian / Rest of the World money man comes knocking on Kenwright?s door. I don?t think we need them and, whilst Bill Kenwright would make a few bob, our Club would be hung out to dry.

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